Accusation TwoHistorical Hoaxes and Common Misunderstandings

Léo Taxil

Many of the accusations regarding Freemasonry and Devil worship originated in the work of a French practical joker and downright fraudster by the name of Leo Taxil. Taxil was born in France in 1854. His real name was Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès. After a childhood spent in a Jesuit seminary Taxil became disilusioned with Roman Catholicism and his first published works were critical of the Church in a number of different ways. But in 1885 Taxil apparently underwent a transformation and professed himself to have been taken back into the faith. From this point on he published a series of books that supposedly showed Freemasonry to be a subversive occult society, committed to the Satanic arts and absolutely counter to everything that was Christian and good.

Perhaps unfortunately Taxil was a good writer and a convincing public speaker. Anti Masonic sentiment was particularly rife at the time, especially in the Catholic Church, so his silacious books were snapped up and believed, even by the highest in the Church. In 1887 Taxil suddenly announced, at a public meeting, that everything he had written about Freemasonry had been a deliberate hoax. He claimed that the whole plan had merely been to demonstrate how much anti Masonic sentiment there was in the Catholic Church. He declared his supposed conversion to have been another hoax and that his hatred for the Church remained sound. Mud sticks and even though Taxil had annouced to the whole world that he knew little or nothing about the true motives and practices of Freemasonry, people still believed what he had written to the contrary. Much anti Masonic sentiment, and especially its supposed association with Devil worship still stems from the books of this man

Baphomet and the Sabbatic Goat

Another man who did Freemasonry no real favours whatsoever was Eliphas Levi. Levi, whose real name was Alphonse Louis Constant was born in Paris in 1810, the son of a shoemaker. As a child he attended the Roman Catholic semminary of St Sulpice (famed in the 19th century for its strange, unorthodox and often occult leanings). Having left the semminary without becoming a priest Levi went on to follow a career in magic and the occult. He wrote many books on the subject and considered himself to be the 'last of the Magii'. There is no doubt that Levi was a Freemason of the Grand Orient of France. It proved to be a great vehicle for his own career in magic and in his works he began to apparently reveal many of the 'true' magical secrets of Freemasonry. In particular he dealt with the supposed connection between Freemasonry and the much earlier Knights Templar. At the time the Templars were disbanded and made illegal in 1307 it was stated that one of the crimes of which they were accused was the worship of a strange bearded head, which they referred to as 'Baphomet'. Despite the fact that examples of this quite normal bearded head exist in many places where Templars flourished, Levi claimed that the true nature of Baphomet had been the form shown in the picture above. Levi's work was very popular in the magic revival of the 19th century and those opposed to the occult in any way chose to see this picture as representative of the Devil, despite the fact that it was the creation of Elephas Levi himself. It has now become an icon for those who accuse Freemasonry of Devil Worship, though in fact it is unknown to Freemasonry propper and has no part to play in even its most elevated degrees or its symbols.Taken together, the books and careers of Albert Pike, Leo Taxil and Elephas Levi have done more to sully any good name Freemasonry may have had than all the attacks made on the Craft by religious authorities acting on their own volition. The result of the accumulated works they created (though none of them was sanctioned or approved by any Masonic authority) has been to add fuel to a fire that, when the real evidence is assessed, is a feeble flame at best. As a researcher and writer, it matters little to me whether or not Freemasons invoke Satan, or any other entity at their regular meetings. On the contrary, such revelations, if true, would make good reading and sell many books. All the same, I have always striven to report the truth as I see it on account of the evidence and after nearly 30 years of patient observation, it seems to me that such accusations are totally groundless.

Verdict - Innocent (Except in the comprehension of truly radical Evengelical Christians who would probably accuse the Pope, the Dali Lama and Gandhi of being Devil Worshippers too.)

So far so good, but there is still a long way to go and by no means everything that follows reflects quite so well on Freemasonry.